Santas Letters

This year the kids wrote the best letters to Santa. Here is Phoenix's.I'll translate... My Wish List 2008 / December 23 / Bike Ramp / Lego Indiana Jones Lego Set / Star Wars Boba Fett Set / Webkinz Reindeer / Camera / Rock Smoother / Lego Hospital / Lots of Star Wars

As you can see, Phoenix is crazy about Legos right now. If you're wondering about the Rock Smoother, he wants some kind of device that will take rough rocks that he finds and make them nice and smooth.

Here's Heidi's...

December 23, 2008 / Dear Santa, I would like for Christmas... lots of fairy books, a hippo webkin, stretchy pants, Slider Sorry (the board game), for it to snow, and other things you want to give me. Love, Heidi
Its such a cute letter and the decorations are adorable. Bummer about the snow thing. I think it was 70 degrees on Christmas.

On Adam

Today, I had to take Adam for a sweat chloride test to test for Cystic Fibrosis. It is such a scary thought. Our doctor doesn't think he has it, but we need to rule it out. Of course, all this stems from Adam's 7 bouts of pneumonia since February. Why does he keep getting pneumonia all the time? Who knows? We are squeezing in a bunch of tests before the end of the year to hopefully get the insurance company to cover some of them. We are super close to our high insurance deductible.

This test was stressful and I was not looking forward to it. I had trouble sleeping last night. I had to wake up early to get Adam to the test on time. No salty foods for breakfast. Bring a bunch of winter clothes because we have to make Adam sweat. They put a sweat collection device on his arm and then we bundle him up and sit next to a heater for 40 minutes. If Adam doesn't sweat enough, we have to re-do the test.
I really thought I'd be fighting with him the whole time to keep his clothes on. He has no trouble insisting on doing something different than I want him to do. I didn't even bring a hat because I thought it would be a lost cause. Adam really surprised me. He sat so still on my lap and never tried to undress. Towards the end of the test when he was getting really hot, he would whimper and cry a little but then calm down. They were able to collect enough sweat from his hot, little arm and he was done. He was so happy to take off his jacket and sweater and he babbled to the technician about Christmas and cars.

I hope this test comes back negative. We'll know tomorrow.

Phoenix builds an Electric Circuit

We got Phoenix a set of Snap Circuits for Christmas. It's a cool toy that lets you build circuits (no wires) by snapping together special parts. Here is a motor he just built.

Christmas Eve at our house

We had a big Christmas feast at our own home last night. It was just us and the kids, so I cooked tons of food and way too much dessert. Here was the cute Santa cake I found at HEB. And here is a slice missing. Merry Christmas
Phoenix was getting a little tired by the end of the evening.
Adam in his new Cars pajamas. He was so excited.
Sweet Heidi.
Here's our tree and decorations.
Our advent wreath.
Everyone ready to eat!

Jingle Bell Whoosits-Whatsits

Heidi's gymnastics class had a Jinglebell Something-or-other (whatever it was called). We got to sit for 2 whole hours and watch Heidi demonstrate about 2 minutes of gymnastics skills. It was a long time but she was great! Plus the YMCA child watch was open for about half the time so only half the time was Adam climbing all over us.
Heidi, the next Nadia Comaneci.



Here's Heidi doing the back bend. This is something she has only recently been able to do.

Good job Heidi.





Heidi on Balance Beam. Check out the antlers.








Heidi's Award Ceremony (she is still in hot pursuit of trophys and scored with a gymnastics trophy). I filmed it on my still camera and I forgot and turned it from landscape to portrait, so just turned your head and enjoy.

Here is Heidi on the trampoline. I think its called the Donkey. It sure looks like it.

Adam Wii Skiing

We are having a great time with the new Wii Balance Board and playing Wii fit (Thanks Mom & Dad). Even Adam got to to play. Here is a video of him playing the skiiing game. You can't see the TV too well, so I'll tell you what is going on. You have to lean left or right to ski in those directions.

Christmas Photos & Pneumonia

We took some Christmas photos on Saturday, thanks to Cortis's parents. So I'll get to make so Christmas cards...
...just as soon as the doctors appointments calm down. Yes, this smiling, happy Adam came down with pneumonia and "reactive airway disease" not 2 days later. We have appointments for blood tests, allergy tests, cystic fibrosis tests (just to be sure) and probably some other ones I'm not listing. Oh, and we have really lousy health insurance. Great.

Reflections Contest Winners in the house

The kids school has an art contest every year. It is put on by the PTA and is called "Reflections." This years theme was "Wow" and kids were supposed to create some kind of art reflecting that theme. This year both Phoenix and Heidi created something to enter and both of them won awards.

Phoenix entered this painting in the Visual Arts division. It is called "Flying" and it shows Phoenix and his Dad flying remote control airplanes. The cool thing is that he painted the real remote control planes that they own. He won the Award of Merit. Which meant he got a cool medal to wear.
Heidi also painted an entry. It is called "Mother Dove." She loves all things from the Disney Fairies Universe and Mother Dove is a character from there. She also won an Award of Merit. It was pretty cool. There were only 6 out of 33 paintings that won the Award of Merit so the kids were pretty excited.

Here they are receiving their medals.

Heidi also entered a film she made in the Film Production category. She was the only one to make a film. She won an Award of Excellence and will go on to the next round of judging. (Her main goal was to get a trophy so she is pretty happy)
Also, below is a photo of Phoenix next to his artwork.



Here is Heidi's movie. Its called "The Trouble with Tink." She made it all herself. The rules said she couldn't have any adult help. We showed her how to use the camera and how to use the iMovie software and then let her go.